out. “No one could be more bitterly opposed to ever getting the U.S. involved in a hot war in that region than I am,” Eisenhower declared in front of a room full of reporters. “Every move I authorize is calculated . . . to make certain that that does not happen.” This became the leitmotif of Ike’s Asian diplomacy: to maneuver in such a way that the war could be sustained without direct U.S. involvement. For emphasis he insisted, “I cannot conceive of a greater tragedy for America than to get heavily involved now in an all-out war in any part of those regions.”
